1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a holding unit of a guide pipe of a sunroof apparatus of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Arts
As a sunroof apparatus provided to an opening of the roof of a vehicle, a structure disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-234337 has been known. The sunroof apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-234337 mainly includes a pair of guide rails, a frame which connects ends of the guide rails, a sunroof panel which is moved along the guide rails, a driving device which moves the sunroof panel, and a cable which connects the driving device and the sunroof panel.
The cable connects a slider provided to the sunroof panel and the driving device provided to the frame. The cable is laid along the opening of the roof from the guide rail to the frame. At the outside of the guide rail, the outer circumferential surface of the cable is covered by a guide pipe. By covering the cable with the guide pipe, the cable is protected from a dust or water and is also prevented from being bent.
As the guide pipe may come in contact with the frame due to the vibration of the vehicle, the guide pipe has to be held to the frame. In order to solve the problem, a structure can be considered in which a recessed groove 102 is formed in the frame 101 and a guide pipe 104 covering the cable 103 is arranged in the recessed groove 102 as shown in FIG. 7. However, since the upper part of the recessed groove 102 is opened in this structure, the guide pipe 104 may still be removed from the recessed groove 102 when external force is applied to the frame 101. Thus, another structure can be considered in which a pair of engaging claw parts for holding the guide pipe is provided in a portion of the frame to hold the guide pipe in the frame, as shown in FIG. 4 of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-234337, for example.
However, even in the structure in which the engaging claw parts are provided, there still is a problem that the guide pipe is likely to be removed when external force is applied since the outer circumferential surface of the guide pipe only comes in line contact with the distal end of the engaging claw part. Especially, at a part of the frame where the recessed groove for accommodating the guide groove is curved, the guide pipe is likely to be removed from the outer edge of the recessed groove since the guide pipe is strongly pressed to the outer edge of the recessed groove when external force is applied to the frame.